In 1997 Mr and Mrs Stephen Clark commissioned the Bannermans to help them to develop a garden which reflected their globe-trotting lives. They specifically requested that the style be formal and very ‘David Hicks’. This was a joy as the Bannermans had found in David Hicks a friend and admirer of their work, and they in turn had always thought him a better garden than interior designer. Hick’s‘s gardening books are some of the best. Presented with a much loved but run to ruin walled garden the Bannermans advised a total new start. The plan is entirely formal, quartered by Hornbeam allees, the resultant ‘rooms’ are dedicated to Italy( the swimming pool garden) ; England ( the rosy, peony – filled cottage garden) ; Africa ( a rather Franco-Italo – Egyptian version, although the mud huts and southern African planting is still to come) ; and China which was designed and executed almost entirely by the clients on their own. Beside this a productive fruit and vegetable garden and, in the wider garden, a modest brick and Bathstone ‘Ruin’.